Missin cabinets feature clean and simple lines and details.
The straight lines and minimal hardware used for mission cabinets complement many decor styles. Mission-style kitchen cabinets have wooden doors with clean, square or rectangular shapes. Kitchen-cabinet doors with dramatic grain patterns in the wood, stained in dark or earth-tone colors, with beveled glass inserts, and functional handles and knobs are all part of the mission style. Research Craftsman, Eastlake and Frank Lloyd Wright designs to gather ideas and colors popularized by these styles. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
1. Measure the kitchen using a tape measure. Create a sketch of the kitchen. Mark the placement of the plumbing, gas lines and electrical outlets on the sketch. Include all obstacles such as posts, pillars, walls and windows in the sketch.
2. Create a grid drawing for upper and lower cabinet layout using the sketch as a guide. Determine where the new cabinets are to be placed. Place dishwashers and refrigerators with ice makers on the same wall as the sink to avoid moving plumbing lines.
3. Buy pre-finished cabinet boxes from a home-improvement store and customize by making your own doors. Purchase cabinets with a face frame around the openings of the boxes in order to have the authentic mission-style cabinet doors with the hinge hardware showing.
4. Install upper cabinet boxes to the wall first to avoid having to reach over the lower cabinets. Use standard height cabinets of both 30 inches and 42 inches. Install tall cabinets with glass inserts for more dramatic interest to the design. Install the lower cabinets using the grid drawing as a guide.
5. Make the doors and drawer fronts. Use reclaimed wood if possible to add an authentic touch. Make the doors using quarter-cut wooden panels in oak or alder if using new wood.
6. Determine the sizes of the doors by subtracting the space necessary for the hinges and allowing for the full swing of the doors. Size all the doors and drawer fronts with the same reveal on all of the face frames. Make slab doors using one piece of lumber square cut with 90-degree edges. Add square-cut half-inch thick molding to the perimeter of each door. Adjust the width of the moldings to the sizes of the doors and drawers. Attach molding with glue and countersink wood screws. Add decorative wood plugs to cover countersunk screws.
7. Sand smooth and stain all the cabinet face frames, doors and drawer fronts. Apply multiple coats of a semi-gloss or matte-finish varnish over the stain. Sand the doors, drawers and face frames between coats of varnish to insure a smooth and consistent finish.
8. Install the doors. Use hinges that will show on the face frames. Use traditional mission-style hinges in oiled bronze or copper color.
Tags: face frames, doors drawer, doors drawer fronts, doors with, drawer fronts